Rahul Gandhi bats for PM, says not in an embarrassing position

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi today came out in strong support of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the wake of the Supreme Court observations in the 2G spectrum scam.

"I don't think he is in an embarrassing position at all," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament, throwing the weight of the Congress behind the Prime Minister.

The Congress General Secretary was asked whether the Supreme Court's observation has put the Prime Minister in an embarrassing position.

Gandhi's comments came a day after AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi came out in strong support of the Prime Minister, saying the party "had stood, is standing and will stand" by him and that "in the whole world, no one doubts the integrity of our Prime Minister. He is an able and noble person and the party is fully with him."

His remarks came in the wake of the mounting attack on the Prime Minister by the opposition, which demanded an explanation from him in the wake of the Supreme Court observations as to why there was delay in granting sanction to prosecute former Telecom Minister A Raja.

The AICC has held that the Supreme Court observation is not a stricture by any stretch of imagination.

Parliament was adjourned on Friday over a massive corruption scandal that has ensnared the Prime Minister, whose popularity partly resides in his "Mr Clean" image.

The Comptroller and Auditor General ignited a firestorm earlier this week when it announced that the botched sale of 2G telecom licences in 2008 at a small fraction of their value had cost the country up to Rs 1.76 Lakh crores.

The opposition has been blocking parliamentary business all week, calling for a Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) into the scandal. Proceedings were adjourned on Friday until next week after angry MPs stormed the well of the house.

On Thursday, Supreme Court upped the pressure on PM by asking him to depose an affidavit before the court by Saturday explaining his "alleged inaction and silence for 16 months."

"The telecom scam is the most serious crisis faced by the government in the last six years," respected political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan told AFP, referring to the start of the present coalition in 2004.

"It has now become a question of credibility."

Opposition parties say Raja, who presided over the world's fastest-growing mobile market, gifted the lucrative wireless spectrum licences to firms that he favoured.

The auditors found that 85 of the 122 licences issued in 2008 were given to ineligible companies, while the opaque procedure in which applicants were given little time to submit their files was also criticised.

Raja says he is innocent and his decision to sell licences on a first-come-first-served basis, even to companies with no telecom experience, was in line with the policy of his predecessors.

The licences would have raised several times their sale price in an auction.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended Thursday the cancellation of 69 licences of six operators who have failed to meet the criteria to run a 2G network.